During my past almost decade of living with rheumatoid arthritis, there have been many times when the act of walking requires me to concentrate on each and every step. My entire world comes down to tightening my grasp on my crutch handles, and moving one foot in front of another. Yes, I might be moving at a snails pace…but at least I’m moving. Grandmothers with walkers seem to have turbo boost, and ‘average’ people seem to be moving at the speed of light. Throw in some stairs, and…well, you get the picture!

Yesterday I was shuffling through some holiday music on my iPod, when I came across this song from the classic stop-animation version of ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town.’ I’ve heard this before, I thought to myself. Of course, I had seen this show many times when I was a child, back before VCRs and DVDs, when the appearance of Christmas cartoons on prime time network television was the most exciting thing ever…but this is not what I was referring to.

And then it dawned upon me. I realized that during all of these periods over the past ten years, when my ability to walk slowly seemed to be slipping away, I would actually tell myself, over and over, that all I had to do is put one foot in front of the other. This is the reason why this song seemed so familiar to me!

Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walking cross the floor
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walking out the door